Dr Di Yu

Head, Molecular Immunomodulation Laboratory

Biography

In the Molecular Immunomodulation Laboratory, Dr Di Yu and his team are investigating the molecular mechanisms controlling the balance of immune responses with the focus to design new strategies to modulate the immune system to treat autoimmune disease, infection and cancer.

Dr Yu completed his PhD with Professors Carola Vinuesa and Chris Goodnow at the Australian National University (Canberra) in 2007 and conducted postdoctoral research with Professor Charles Mackay at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research (Sydney) from 2007-2010. In 2010, he was awarded with the Monash Fellowship to establish the Molecular Immunmodulation Laboratory. The Monash Fellowship program provides the best possible research environment to internationally competitive researchers to undertake research of national and international significance.

Dr Yu is a recipient of the Excellence Award from Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (2010), the Frank Fenner Medal from the Australian National University (2008), the International Research Award from the Australian Society for Medical Research (2007) and the New Investigator Award from the Australasian Society for Immunology (2006). His research at Monash University has been supported by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Australian Research Council (ARC), National Institute of Health (NIH, USA) and the Ramaciotti Foundations.

Research Interests

Antibody responses, vaccines and autoimmune diseases

Antibodies are used by the immune system to identify and neutralize pathogens. Generation of pathogen-specific neutralizing antibodies is the basis of most successful vaccines. On the contrary, self-reactive antibodies (autoantibodies) bind self-antigens and can interfere with normal cellular functions as well as operate immune effector mechanisms to generate autoimmune pathology. We and others recently characterized a new subset of helper T cells, named follicular helper T (Tfh) cells. Tfh cells orchestrate antibody affinity maturation and memory formation to regulate antibody responses. Therefore, Tfh cells are crucial for antibody-based vaccination and also play an important role in antibody-mediated autoimmune diseases. We use various genetically modified mice to understand the molecular mechanism for the differentiation and function of Tfh cells. This will help us to design new strategies to promote antibody responses to enhance vaccination or suppress autoantibody responses to treat autoimmune diseases.

Cytokine and cancer immunotherapy

The elimination of infected cells or tumour cells requires an orchestrated set of immune events mediated by leukocytes such as T lymphocytes, dendritic cells and nature killer cells. Interleukin IL-21 (IL-21) is emerging as a key cytokine for anti-infection/anti-tumour immunity, by regulating multiple cellular components, in particular, two major effector populations responsible for elimination of infected/tumour cells: NK and CD8+ T cells. Numerous preclinical models have demonstrated the very promising anti-infection/anti-tumour effects of IL-21. IL-21-based cancer immunotherapy is being evaluated in human clinical trials. We have adopted a novel strategy to genetically modify mice by replacing endogenous IL-21 and IL-21 receptor with human IL-21 and its receptor. We will use this tool to develop new approaches to boost anti-infection and anti-tumour immunity by enhancing the IL-21 pathway, which can rapidly be translated into human therapies.

Transcription factors and microRNAs

Transcription factors (TFs) are specialized proteins that bind certain DNA sequences adjacent to genes to promote or suppress the transcription of the gene. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short non-coding RNA molecules than bind complementary RNA sequences within target mRNAs to tune mRNA expression by inducing cleavage and/or translational inhibition. TFs and miRNAs together establish a complex transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulatory network within leukocytes largely controlling immune responses. Using cutting-edge technology, such as next generation sequencing, we aim to reveal the features of TF-miRNA regulatory networks during normal and dysregulated immune responses.

Laboratory Members

Research Fellows

Dr Yanfang Cui

PhD Students

Mr Yew Ann LeongMs Yaping (Crystal) ChenMr Zhian (Anthony) Chen

Projects

Honours and PhD projects are available on the research direction of the laboratory and will be tailored according to students' interests, length of study and research experience. Interested students should contact Dr. Di Yu (di.yu@monash.edu) for further details.